Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has awarded health information technology scholarships totaling $20,000 to five Johns Hopkins University students in a public health informatics program.

The five awards were used by the recipients to conduct capstone projects in the university's Department of Health Policy and Management recently established Certificate in Public Health Informatics program. The recipients are Lindsey Ferris and Julian Brunner of Baltimore, Md., Sarah Meisenberg of Severna Park, Md., Freddie Taylor Barber of Little Rock, Ark., and Kristina Gustafson of Fremont, Calif.

"Supporting advancements in health IT and informatics benefits academia, the health care industry, and every citizen who receives better quality of care as a result of making better health care decisions," said Mike Leff, director of Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Civil Health Applications Solutions. "The students selected for these awards each had an innovative idea on how health informatics could be used, and Lockheed Martin is proud to help them advance their education by supporting their research."

As the number-one IT provider to the U.S. federal government, Lockheed Martin is in a position to advance the application of IT to health care challenges at a national level. In fact, Lockheed Martin's current health IT business spans across several federal government agencies with notable programs such as the Social Security Administration's Information Technology Services Support Contract (ITSSC) and its Disability Case Processing System (DCPS) programs, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator's Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN), and some work within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR).

"Public health organizations, including the federal government, face a challenge in collecting and analyzing data related to the health of a population, and managing this data to maximize efficiency and efficacy," said Jonathan Weiner, Ph.D., the director of the Health Informatics Certificate program at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Health care informatics – the intersection of information science, computer science and health care that enables the optimal use of data capture, storage, retrieval and the use of information in health – is one way to change the challenge into an opportunity."

In support of current and future health IT business, Lockheed Martin is investing in research and development projects devoted to health information exchange, privacy and security, interoperability, and health informatics. "Education has always been a focus for Lockheed Martin," Leff emphasized. "Supporting a scholarship program at Johns Hopkins University and work that could bolster our future recruitment pipeline is a natural extension of this focus."

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 126,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's 2010 sales from continuing operations were $45.8 billion.